Commonsense prevails for Wyong PUBLIC Hospital

Thursday 6th July 2017

The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) says ten months of campaigning alongside community members, public health advocates and local health workers has successfully ensured a redeveloped Wyong Hospital will remain in public hands.

General Secretary of the NSWNMA, Brett Holmes, welcomed today’s announcement and congratulated NSW Health Minister, Brad Hazzard, for making the only sensible decision.

“Without a doubt this is a welcome result and indicates that commonsense can prevail when governments are prepared to listen to all stakeholders,” Mr Holmes said.

“The previous Health Minister made a serious error in judgement when she announced last September that Wyong Hospital would be redeveloped under a public-private partnership without consulting staff, community members or health unions.

“There is overwhelming evidence showing public-private partnerships are an expensive, ill-fitting model when it comes to the health sector.

“Handing over public hospitals to be built and run by private operators results in a loss of accountability, a lack of safe patient care and more taxpayers’ dollars being gifted to private shareholders – the residents of Wyong understood this and didn’t want to see it happen to their local hospital.

“Today’s decision by the Berejiklian Government to walk away from plans to privatise Wyong Hospital is a step in the right direction.

“After allocating $10 million in last month’s budget to the hospital’s redevelopment, the state government must now fast track the remaining $190 million to ensure the upgrades are delivered on time.

“This is a win for our hardworking local members and I want to thank the Wyong community and our combined campaigning efforts with other health sector unions to deliver this outcome,” said Mr Holmes.

Mr Holmes said it was also imperative the Berejiklian Government makes the right public health policy decision and scrapped plans to privatise Bowral Hospital, Shellharbour Hospital and the new Maitland Hospital at Metford.

The NSWNMA has confirmed it will continue to campaign to all political parties against the privatisation of public hospitals in NSW.